Stubborn fire displaces 4 from West Side building

By Staff reportJune 09, 2011

(Antonio…)

Four people, apparently squatters, have been displaced by a stubborn fire in the tire-filled basement of a vacant three-story apartment building in the West Garfield Park neighborhood this afternoon, a fire official said.

Firefighters were called sometime around 4 p.m. to the three-story building on the 4300 block of West Madison Street, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado. Two adults and two children were examined by paramedics on the scene, but no one appeared to have suffered injuries in the fire, Rosado said.

The fire was declared under control about 6 p.m.

The building, which appears to be vacant, suffered damage to its basement and minor damage to its first floor after the blaze began in a basement filled with hundreds of tires, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. Fire officials were told that although the building is vacant, squatters apparently live there because it has been largely structurally sound, and the four checked by paramedics apparently had been living on upper floors, Langford said.

Firefighters had difficulty extinguishing the blaze, because of junk in the basement of what might have been a tire shop, Rosado said. A Fire Department foam truck, which produces foam used to douse stubborn blazes, was called to the scene, Rosado said.